Morning came.
Safsan opened his eyes.
For a moment, he didn't move.
He stared at the ceiling and remembered the night.
The running.
Himself chasing himself.
The feeling that looking back would mean death.
The dream inside the dream.
He remembered waking up...
only to discover that he was still dreaming.
He had never experienced anything like it before.
And now, for some reason, the thought of sleeping again frightened him.
Safsan got out of bed.
He dressed.
He left his home.
And stepped into Odania.
At first glance, Odania looked ordinary.
People walked through the streets.
Cars passed by.
Businesses opened their doors.
Children went to school.
People argued.
People laughed.
People hurried to work.
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Life continued.
But there was something about Odania that Safsan had always found difficult to explain.
The country had a history.
Everyone knew that.
At least...
they thought they did.
The history taught in schools was written in books.
The books were old.
The stories had been passed down for generations.
But somewhere along the way, parts of that history had been changed.
Some events had been removed.
Some names had disappeared.
Some truths had been rewritten until nobody remembered what they had originally meant.
Most people didn't question it.
Why would they?
If something had been written in a history book for generations, why would an ordinary person assume it was a lie?
Only a small number of very old people knew that Odania's real history was different.
They remembered things that the books no longer contained.
They remembered stories that had never been allowed to survive on paper.
But they rarely spoke about them.
And to most people living in Odania today...
what had once been considered wrong had slowly become normal.
People adapted.
That was one of the strange things about human beings.
Give something enough time...
and people could become comfortable with almost anything.
Yet Odania also had its advantages.
If you were smart enough, there were countless ways to make a living.
You could find a job.
Create something.
Build something.
Sell something.
Or, if you couldn't find the job you wanted...
you could simply create your own.
There were people in Odania who had made entire careers from ideas that had started as nothing more than thoughts.
Safsan wasn't one of them.
Not yet.
For now, he had a job.
A simple one.
But one that required trust.
He was responsible for a cinema.
The owner had noticed something about him.
Out of all the people he had met, Safsan seemed to be one of the most reliable.
He wasn't necessarily the loudest.
He wasn't the most charismatic.
He didn't try to impress people.
But when Safsan said he would do something...
he usually did it.
So the owner gave him responsibility.
Every day, Safsan would decide which movies would be shown.
He would choose the films for the day's schedule.
Then he would take their posters and place them outside the cinema.
Sometimes on the doors.
Sometimes on the walls.
Whatever worked.
It wasn't a glamorous job.
But Safsan didn't mind.
There was something peaceful about it.
He arrived in the morning before the cinema became busy.
He unlocked the doors.
He stepped inside.
The building was quiet.
Too quiet.
Safsan turned on the lights.
Then he reached for the music.
A song filled the empty cinema.
The silence disappeared.
Safsan stood behind the counter for a moment, listening.
Then he looked at the posters waiting to be put outside.
He picked up the first one.
He studied it.
Then another.
He had to decide.
Which movies would people want to watch today?
Safsan placed the posters on the wall.
He stepped back.
Adjusted one.
Moved another slightly to the side.
Then he looked at the entrance.
Everything was ready.
The cinema was open.
The city outside had already begun moving.
People were going to work.
Students were going to school.
Coffee was being poured.
Horses moved somewhere beyond the city.
And somewhere beneath all of it...
Odania carried a history that almost nobody remembered.
Safsan didn't know that history.
He didn't know what had been erased.
He didn't know what had been changed.
He didn't know why certain old people became silent whenever the past was mentioned.
And he certainly didn't know that the land he called home was connected to something far older than the history written in its books.
For now...
Safsan was simply standing inside a cinema.
Music playing.
Movie posters on the wall.
Another ordinary morning.
He looked at the clock.
Then sighed.
“Alright.”
The first customers would arrive soon.
And Safsan had no idea...
that his ordinary day was about to become anything but ordinary.